-•-•-

An approaching set of footsteps could be heard throughout the abattoir. "Is no-one going to introduce me to our new guest? I could smell him from a mile away," he said, the heads of Elijah, Rebekah, and Freya turning towards him.

"For gods sakes, leave them be, Nik," Rebekah stated as Niklaus approached the circle of his siblings. 

"Oh please, little sister. I have better things to do than terrorize children," he replied smugly.

"Niklaus, it seems that while you were out strolling  the streets of New Orleans, we  have stumbled upon something. A pack of werewolves were found trapped in a cave hidden by magic. By the time we got there whoever it was had already gone," Elijah explained to an eager Klaus.

"The cave was hidden by magic?" Klaus asked seeming to be intrigued by the topic.

"Yes. It took almost all of our power combined to even break the spell at all," Freya said chiming in.

"That means whoever hid those wolves wanted them to stay hidden. The boy upstairs was one of them?" Klaus asked.

"Yes. He's also a friend of Remi's. That's how we were able to find them in the first place," Rebekah replied.

After a moment of Klaus appearing to be pondering something, he spoke up again. "I'd like to speak with her," he said in a softer tone than usual and looked around at the faces of his siblings, knowing they're very protective of her.

"Niklaus are you sure that is a good idea considering?" Elijah asked.

"It won't be for too long, just a few questions," Klaus replied and began towards the stairs leading up to Remi's unofficial room.

"Nik," Rebekah began and he looked over at her, "just... tread lightly. She's just a child."

Klaus nodded in response, knocking on the door of Remi's room.

"Come in!" Remi replied, sitting on the edge of her bed while Sawyer sat on a chair near the terrace window.

Klaus then opened the door, walking in slightly and leaned on a wall for support. 

"I'll, um, give you guys a moment," Sawyer said, smiling at Remi before walking downstairs into the courtyard.

"Hey," Remi said softly.

"Hello, love," Klaus replied. "I apologize for intruding on your conversation, but I couldn't help myself from wondering about this so-called hidden cave," he continued.

"Oh, yeah were we found the pack. Well, what do you want to know?" Remi replied, situating herself so that she faced Klaus fully.

"Start from the beginning. If there's something out there targeting wolves I damn well want to know about it," Klaus responded.

"Well, it started out with Freya and Rebekah helping me find Sawyer. We went to his apartment to look for something to use in a locator spell and we ended up finding a toothpick. Then we came back here and started up the spell. Since the toothpick was old and had barely any saliva on it, Freya needed to channel me to finish the spell. I guess you know what locator spells do, but anyways the map burned up everywhere else except this tiny spot in a forest. After that, we drove to the Couturie Forest and walked almost everywhere but we still couldn't find anything. Freya ended up figuring out that there was this sort of 'magical current' in the air that was hiding something behind it. Freya needed to channel magic from all of us to finally break the spell. Then we walked inside and that's where we found the wolves. There were so many of them; kids and adults. They were all missing for weeks, just hidden in some freaking cave," Remi finished, getting quieter near the end, clearly frustrated that she hadn't started looking for them sooner.

"Remi, none of this is your fault. You're the reason those wolves get to return to their packs; you're a hero," Klaus said, moving to sit down next to her on the bed. 

"I know, but I-I should've done something, anything to help look for them sooner. Imagine being trapped in a dark, cold cave for weeks and knowing no one could find you. I-I..." Remi said, sitting up from the edge of her bed and starting to pace back and forth. 

Klaus watched her sadly for a moment before standing up as well and wrapping her in a hug. Remi sniffled into his chest and they just stood there silently, a 1000 year old immortal hybrid comforting a sixteen year old witch. For him, it brought back memories of protecting his little sister during thunderstorms in the early days of childhood. Sensing her breath cease to shutter, they both pulled away and sat back down on the silk bed.

"I see why my siblings are so protective of you, you have a tendency to tug on the heartstrings don't you?" Klaus stated jokingly.

Remi giggled in response, "sorry."

"Just know that you did do everything right in helping those wolves; they're safe and back where they belong," he replied.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It just sucks knowing someone did that to them," Remi responded.

"It's getting late, I suppose you should probably get to bed," Klaus said, standing up and walking over towards the door.

" 'Night," Remi said, pulling the sheets up to her torso and closing her eyes peacefully.

"I will find whoever took them and rip their heads off their bloody necks," Klaus said, switching off the lights and exiting the room.

-•-•-

As Klaus emerged from Remi's room and walked back down to the courtyard, everyone turned their heads towards him.

"Remi's asleep. If anyone would like to join me, I'm off to search for whoever's behind this plot to exterminate an entire line of werewolves," Klaus stated.

"I'll join you, brother. Sawyer, you're welcome to occupy a room for the night if you please," Elijah added.

"I'll come as well. Freya?" Rebekah asked.

"I'm gonna stay here with the kids just incase. Keep me updated," Freya answered, Rebekah nodding in response.

And with that, the three originals left the abattoir in search of anyone with information regarding the wolves.

-•-•-

one update every two weeks and you guys are still legends. damn, 9.9k reads?! I love you all so much:) Sooooo as a little gift to you all in honor of my 15th birthday tomorrow (Nov. 13th), I thought I would give a little information about the future of this book!

1. I plan on ending this book at 25-30 chapters more or less

2. After book one is completed, there will most likely be a sequel (if you guys want one?)

3. The ending won't be a cliffhanger per say, more of a 'hey, um what is gonna happen next?!?!??' kind of moment

4. A final thing to anyone reading this, you have the option to decide what happens next after any chapter! Let me know what you want to happen/ be incorporated and I might make it happen! I'm always looking for new ideas for chapters and I would love to add some things that you guys want to see :)

sorry about the small-ish chapter, I've been super busy with schoolwork! thank you all again for almost 10k reads!!! ahhh I love you all sm!!

-charlotte